Communications and Relations ship at the workplaces. Sami and Waleed have been co-workers for the last three years. They became friends when both went through their company's orientation program at the same time. During the last project-the two of them are internal consultants in their defense electronics firm and often deliver employee effectiveness workshops together - Sami fell through on a promise he made to the internal client, a manager of the printed circuit board group. Sami didn't think it was too big a deal not sending the plan for the four-hour workshop to the manager several days before the workshop occurred; after all, it went well and the employees seemed to get a lot out of it. Waleed, however, was incensed. He told Sami-in no uncertain terms-how unprofessional he thought Sami had been and how it reflected poorly on Waleed and their department. Sami sat there feeling scolded and unable to respond and thought to himself, "Do I have to take this? he's my co-worker, not my boss." Later that afternoon, when Sami passed by Waleed's office, he purposely looked at the floor and clenched his teeth as he made his way back from the copy machine. Waleed, noticing that Sami avoided eye contact when he passed by Waleed's office, called out to Sami. Sami stopped, turned around, and slowly walked back to Waleed's office. "You called me?" Waleed responded, "Yes, I did. Do you have a couple of minutes?" Sami wanted to decline, but the few hours that passed since Waleed's browbeating seemed to soften Sami a bit. "Sure," Sami responded, and walked into Waleed's office. Waleed started, "Listen. I know I was a bit hard on you earlier, and I hope that you understand where I was coming from. We are a team, and we were a team when we delivered that training session. And while I agree that it went well, I was upset because you not keeping your promise to let the manager know ahead of time what we were going to do reflected poorly on both of us and the department. I take my word-or in this case, our word-very seriously. It's all about credibility... you know, do what you say and say what you do. I need this job, and hope that someday soon I will move up in the company. From what I've seen, credibility is really important. Does that make sense?" Sami shrugged and responded, "I guess so." Waleed continued, "We're on the same team, and I want us to help each other perform at our best and project a positive image for the department. What do you think?" Sami asked a few questions, and finally, he apologized to Waleed. "It was an oversight. I intended to send the manager our plan, but I got caught up in two other projects. I'm sorry." Waleed was relieved. "That's OK. We're in this together. How do you want to handle the training for the finance folks next month?" Read the above incident then answer the following questions: 1. What role did active listening play in this conversation? 2. In what way did this exchange resolve the earlier issue between Sami and Waleed? 3. In what way did this exchange set the stage for future conversations and collaborations between Sami and Waleed? 4. How would you have handled the situation if you were Sami? If you were Waleed